The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the ‘World Conference on Environment’ organized by the National Green Tribunal in New Delhi.
The conference was held under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme in collaboration with Ministry of Environment and Forests and Ministry of Water Resources.
Foreign delegates from over 80 countries, chief justices from high courts, judges, environmentalists, lawyers, academicians and others participated in the event.
There were 10 technical sessions presided by foreign judges, judges from the Supreme Court, high courts and experts from different fields.
The objective of this conference is to bring on one platform the various legal systems of the world to find resolution to the issues of environment.
Recent studies and systematic reviews indicate that environmental factors are responsible for an estimated 24% of the global burden of disease in terms of healthy life years lost and 23 % of all deaths. Children are the worst sufferers of the adverse impact of environmental diseases. 24% of all deaths under the age of 15 are due to diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory diseases – all of which are environment related. 19% of the deaths caused by Cancer worldwide are attributed to carcinogens that unmindful industrialization produces.
Our ancient texts have always highlighted the need to maintain a healthy and sustainable relationship between Mankind and Nature. The Atharva-Veda calls it a bounden duty that we must protect the Earth so that Life can be sustained. We have defined our relationship with the Earth as ‘Mata Bhoomi Putro Aham Prithivya’.
Even the Constitution of India, clearly states that it is the duty of the state to ‘protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country’. As the citizen of India we are duty bound to ‘protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife’.
India is playing a significant role in fighting against these global threats. The Government of India has recently set a target for renewable energy generation of 175 Gigawatt by 2022. By 2030, 40% of our installed capacity will be based on non-fossil fuel.